Shakir Mir / Mohammad Raafi
SRINAGAR
Minutes after the quake jolted the Kashmir region on Monday afternoon, netizens took to social media to reach out to the wider world in face of the communication breakdown back in the valley.
Hundreds of users on popular media sites like Facebook and Twitter expressed worry and shared a word or two about their experience during the tremors.
“First I’ve rushed out after the earthquake of 2005,” former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote on the popular micro-blogging site Twitter. “Electricity cut off with the tremors in Srinagar. Praying it hasn’t caused loss of life or too much damage anywhere.”
“Massive earthquake just rocked us. One of the longest duration earthquake I ever experienced,” wrote one Mohammad Saood on Facebook.
As there was a communication breakdown people started worrying about the well-being of their loved ones.
“This was scary enough to worry. A call came through from Delhi, But phones down here. Ryeach kernav,” wrote a senior journalist on Facebook.
I was in my house on the third floor in Lalbazar, and I literally felt death. The building was moving like a swing. My legs are still shivering, wrote one user, Mohammad Saood, from Srinagar.
“I was taking tea. All of a sudden, I felt two big jolts under my feet. At first, I thought it was just an ordinary tremor, but then suddenly, I heard the windows rattle up and I rushed out of the building of my office. It was scary,” wrote Ittifaq Lone, from Baramulla.
I was in my office. Suddenly, I felt my chair shake. It was a massive jolt. All of my colleagues left the office and gathered on the street. I did not return to the office, wrote another user, Omer Vray, from Islamabad.
